In 2009, Junot Díaz received the Order of Merit award which is given to notable Dominican citizens. The Consul General of the Dominican Republic of New York, Eduardo Selman, recently revoked the medal, which Selman said honors the “talent, creativity, and professional trajectory of our most accomplished Dominicans, who symbolize the most genuine values and principles of la dominicanidad,” or Dominicaness, according to The Nation. Díaz’s recent denunciation of the Dominican government’s treatment of Haitian immigrants and Dominicans of Haitian descent, as well as his advocacy in Washington, DC to condemn their actions, is, according to Selmen, “anti-Dominican.” Díaz is …
With Halloween just around the corner, we’ve created a list of some great horror-filled, thrilling novels to get you in the scary spirit. From mind-bending, psychological thrillers to down-right terrifying ghost stories, these imaginative books will make turning off the light at night a little more difficult. Enjoy! The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty Any scary story that professes to be based off real events is automatically petrifying. Regan MacNeil, a 12-year-old girl, starts to act extremely strange—leading her mother to believe that Regan is possessed by demonic spirits. Regan’s mother and a priest, Father Merrin, perform an exorcism to throw …
This will be no easy game of “Would You Rather?” Authors often incorporate similar plot lines and themes, but, of course, their stories are vastly different. Many people compare and contrast books as a means to understand a specific time period from varying points of view. For example, F. Scott Fitzgerald gave us a glance of what life was like for the wealthy during the Jazz Age and Roaring Twenties in the United States through The Great Gatsby, while Virginia Woolf took us across the Atlantic Ocean to England, showing us the realities of high class life in post-World War I Europe …
Villains are awesome. While they tend to be the most hated characters in books, they also make the story. Who would Harry Potter be if Voldemort never tried to kill him, and how boring would his Hogwarts life seem if he didn’t have to constantly fight off Voldemort and his Death Eaters? If the White Witch from The Chronicles of Narnia hadn’t cruelly ruled Narnia for one-hundred years, what good could the Pevensie siblings possibly do for the land? Villains, in the end, are the characters we love to hate. Sometimes we even feel something for them and can sympathize with …
Food plays a huge role in the lives of our favorite fictional characters (as well as our own) and often serves as an important literary device in books. In the Hunger Games series, Suzanne Collins uses food to symbolize how great the disparity is between the 12 districts, with most surviving off bland finds from the black market while those in the Capitol can simply press a button to get an extravagent and delicious feast. The eccentric foods in Harry Potter, Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, and other fantastical books add magical elements which further draw the reader into the …
